Neuropsychiatric conditions (NCs) are characterized by a variety of debilitating affective and cognitive impairments. For example, in schizophrenia, one of the most common psychotic disorders, individuals may suffer from hallucinations, disorders of movement, and the inability to initiate plans, speak, or express emotion. Cognitive deficits in schizophrenia include problems with attention, memory, and the executive functions that allow us to plan and organize. Other NCs include, e.g., mood disorders, age-related cognitive decline, and neurological disorders (e.g., epilepsy and Huntington's disease). The effects of NCs are devastating to the quality of life of those afflicted as well as that of their families. Moreover, NCs impose an enormous health care burden on society. A number of NCs, as well as other conditions that affect cognitive function, have been associated with alterations in the morphology and/or density of dendritic spines, membranous protrusions from dendritic shafts of neurons that serve as highly specialized structures for the formation, maintenance, and function of synapses.